Under brighting stars and rounding moons
Under deeping skies in heart of night
I reach upwards
I grasp
Alas!
Ye brighting stars ye rounding moons!
That I can not touch!
Grammatically, nothing terribly interesting. We do see the double vocative. This could be read as a vocative of reference, since the antecedants are known; in this case, the VOC simply replaces the ergative or absolute or some other case. As the case may be! Alternatively, it could be read as an emphatic, exclamatory or emotive vocative.

Can also see clearly the two different declensional patterns in Queranaran. Technically, words entering the language from Teyoran are declined as they would be in that language. For example, allândesseris is locative plural of an -e class noun, -e- being the stem and -eris being the termination. While native words and words borrowed from other languages are declined in the Queranaran fashion. For example, ata-crhruacadumasni is locative plural of a -s/-sni class noun, ata- being the case termination and -sni being the nominal class marker cum plural formant.

One interesting point on the matters of talgarein & sordadasein is that both of these words have the connotation of vain struggle. Very negative and sad are these words!

If we stuff the whole chicken back into the egg, will all our problems go away? --- Wandalf of Angera

Of Dubious Use is this curious device known as Dom Adlaw's patented Happy Horus's Horological Hexifractor and Hoodling Hootenanny in a Hogshead.
It's a thaumological device the use of which will cause the length of a day to expand from twenty-four to forty-eight hours. Just follow the directions on the box
very carefully and hey presto!, you'll soon be experiencing the wonder of forty-eight hour days, with a soothing folk music background! Bet you can cook a lot
of dinners and paint lots of pictures in forty-eight hours, with Dom Adlaw's Hexifractor!

Works every time, too, so long as you're careful. Some careless folks have noted that, while their clocks do indeed whirl around forty-eight times in a day, their
hours seem quite unaccountably to consist of only thirty minutes. Not quite sure why that should be. Ah, well, one lives and learns! Heliothaumics is a practical integration of light and dwimmery. It is now, in modern times, a well established principle that light can act as a conduit in
which thaumic energy can be corralled and channelled. The only concern then is how to corral and channel the light itself! The answer, of course!, is more
dwimmery, here by means of a thaumologically created glass conduit, perhaps in some ways not too dissimilar to fiber optics.

Heliothaumics is being used in the Uttermost West for certain surgical applications. They have had huge sunlight concentrators on the roof of the Library which
act as a sort of skylight system to brighten the lower levels of the complex and its workshops and surgical theatres for many years. More recently, this system
has been fortified and is now used for rather different purposes as it is now able to concentrate light even more, with the result that the light can be put to
uses other than just illumination. The rather soupy concentrated light of these more powerful concentrators is squeezed through a special conduit and once
exuded, rapidly expands back into normal light, giving off not only a great amount of ordinary light, but also some lights of higher energies and quite a lot of
heat that can be used like a knife. They call it helioparasion, or cutting with the sun.

The closest phenomenon to "antimagic" in The World is the ability of some extremely powerful Daine individuals to act as thaumic attractors and accumulators
and simultaneously as thaumic dampers and consumers. Such are called thaumophages on account of their ability to sort of suck in magical force from around
them as if they were breathing air. This means that such a one may be bombarded on all sides by powerful works of every kind of magic and not only would he
suffer no ill effects but literally will have "drunk" or "breathed in" the raw power around him.

Such Daine are often sensed by astute or sensitive magic users, and they frequently guard themselves closely around such a potential threat. Some
particularly sensitive individuals have said that especially powerful thaumophages can literally attack and suck magical force from someone. Victims say that
the attack itself makes the heart race and breath comes quick and laboured, and that a kind of giddy or almost exstatic feeling comes over one. After such an
attack, the victim is usually psychically and mentally and often physically drained, but is left otherwise unharmed. Though frightening for an accomplished
magic user to be so violated, their innate abilities and powers may not be so easily stripped, and once the attack is over, magical force refills the area and all
is as it was before. Though little comfort to the victims, the thaumophage himself is left similarly drained after persuing such a psychically violent attacks, and
is generally left with headaches and some level of mental confusion for a time afterwards.

If we stuff the whole chicken back into the egg, will all our problems go away? --- Wandalf of Angera

I have a question. Do people in the World see "dwimmery" as one discipline or one type of energy or is it your catch-all term, and the in-world understanding/naming is more nuanced?

I was recently pondering how science works in our world, where we don't really see biology, sociology, and mathematics as one and the same - and I wonder whether in a magical world, people wouldn't similarly see magic as a part of the various disciplines it is applied in, rather than something external to the "normal" course.

gestaltist wrote:I have a question. Do people in the World see "dwimmery" as one discipline or one type of energy or is it your catch-all term, and the in-world understanding/naming is more nuanced?

I was recently pondering how science works in our world, where we don't really see biology, sociology, and mathematics as one and the same - and I wonder whether in a magical world, people wouldn't similarly see magic as a part of the various disciplines it is applied in, rather than something external to the "normal" course.

Sorry for the long delay in reply! These are some really good questions!
On the Nature of Magic in The World

Externally, "dwimmery" is kind of a catch-all term for magical energies (as opposed to other kinds of energy). Internally, it generally refers to certain wrought manifestations of magical force being manipulated. As far as the underlying mechanics are concerned, "dwimmery" and "thaumery" and other such words are but natural forces like electricity, magnetism, gravity and the Force That Makes Singleton Stockings Disappear on Wash Day(*). Some forces are strong, and others are weak (the Force of Ehrranean Rug Attraction is relatively weak, though terribly annoying). Magical forces are not intrinsically strong, but they are potent. And, like electricity and gravity, they can be magnified, directed, focused and manipulated.

"Dwimcraft" or "thaumery" are the usual words I use for the discipline of working magic.

As for "understanding"... that's quite a different matter! Science as we understand it *here*, a systematic way of studying, understanding and categorising the facts of the physical world, doesn't exist in The World. Such understanding as philosophers have of the world around them is largely made by intuition and hit or miss experimentation using quirky schemes that may or may not yield useful results.

I think, internally, how people see dwimmery would depend in large part on what race they are, there being in-born (genetic) and locational differences in how well (or even if at all) people can interact with and manipulate magic. Daine are naturals at it. I don't think they understand *what* dwimmery is, or *how* it works; but its manipulation comes more or less easily to them. I don't think they see it as fundamentally separate from other forces in the environment.

Men do not come by magical ability naturally, but it can be "turned on" and fortified within a human. Definitely no "wizarding world" this place! But they can learn & devise methods by which they can use magic to alter a thing. Some of these methods are intrinsic (meaning that study and practice and probably the consumption of more salted newts eyeballs than is good for one confers or opens up some level of natural ability otherwise denied to Men) while others are extrinsic (wands and amulets and charmed skulls and so forth, used to create some effect). For Men, magic is kind of like math and science: you can't work it until you study it, but once you study the basics, building upon those foundations will result in greater power and capability.

Thus, wizarding among Men, tends to be somewhat D&D-like, with levels and spell books and cauldrons full of manky yuck and hierarchies and focused specialties or disciplines. Man can indeed become terribly powerful, though at terrible cost. As with any natural force, there is always a strong push-back. It's also fairly easy to "shift" them from their power base and defrock them. This you can't do to a Daine.

So Men tend to view dwimmery as done by Daine as a kind of "natural magic", weaker, less focused, more wonders & miracles; whereas they view their own magic as "learned magic", more erudite and refined, more potent and powerful.

Long and short of it: dwimmery tends to be seen by Men as different disciplines and one force and one faculty and one force by Daine and Teyor; while in reality, it's more the other way around. There's really only one "faculty" while there are several kindred forces at work. Kind of like how light comes in relatively "viscous" and relatively "runny" sorts and, of course, within those broad categories, a number of wavelengths. Dwimmery also exists in a couple different forms (several of which are not even available at or near the planet's surface) and also in different waveforms. Philosophers haven't gotten around to the truth of the matter as of yet!
NOTES:
1. I've come to the conclusion that certain forces are universal, regardless of what universe one is in. Even in those cosms where the sophonts do not, strictly speaking, wear stockings (or even have feet), sòmething goes missing on laundry day. Uncanny that.

If we stuff the whole chicken back into the egg, will all our problems go away? --- Wandalf of Angera

1. tantrandlamain --- climb a tree in order to harvest its nuts or fruits
2. dahangderamein --- climb something to a great height, as a cliff or vine or rope
Both derive ultimately from damga- motion upwards plus angtayein, to climb.
3. carecarecuetein --- rush from place to place; in the mallet-and-ball-game, to rush the castles pell-mell; flit about aimlessly
4. ellimersein --- remove any sticky or messy substance from something, especially one's hair or feathers; bathe a child
5. londromein --- journey to a place just to journey; be with someone just to be
6. clandramecuin --- putter or clather about in kitchen or workshop; making happy noise, especially of a rhythmic nature, while working or playing; chant or sing while so working (< qelenderio, chant rhytmically or perhaps < clamdara, rhythmic sounds of any kind (waterfalls, rain, branches tapping on window grates or eaves).

7. yâyâhhewessein --- enjoy the sure satisfaction of scratching a hard to reach itchletlâwashu and-we-yerennio yâyâhhewesseng --- Iereniio is enjoying scratching an itch on the right wing.
8. snaremgvascuerhrtain --- sleep with one's arms & wings & legs splayed all akimbo (< snarehein, to draw a bow + imgvas, short bow + querhrtain, to sleep deeply, be zonked)
9. riresueldein --- of cool breezes, to blow enough to ruffle one's feathers; of gentle fingers, to tousle the hair; of gently running streams, to dishevel the watergrass (<resuelyos, disarranged)
10. liqeimetqung --- of airs & winds, frigid cold; of eyes, an icy stare; of satire, cold burning; of a dishonored female --- trouble indeed for the one who dishonored her!
Note: "tq" is the romanisation for the alveolar click. A Daine will narrow her eyes and emphasise that click when describing someone who's done her sister wrong!
11. shwoyshwuyedarandruin --- catch the allerfleetingest of glimpses of something; catch a mere sight of in the corner of one's eye; blink only to find something is vanished from view (< syowuis, shadowy, fleeting + tarandirein, peer, especially in the darkness)
12. tluwosweyswiin --- play a tune on a flute or whistle; toodle about; whistle while you work; noodle (in the musical sense)
13. siccuwertitiyein --- play a tune on a lute or zither; doodle about; hum while you cook or write; noodle about (in the musical sense)

14.a vilmarayesicasapayein --- count the spangles on a butterfly's wing; enumerate the grooves in a tree's bark; do anything just for doing it sake; do something for mere pleasure (< vilmaraiyo, butterfly + sicasapayein, balance a number of things; bring them to a state of Rest; play on a teetertotter; count and do sums)
14.b derwenneliraylurayein --- draw without goal but for simple pleasure; doodle; make lovely visual designs (< derwinein, draw < derwentis, charcoal crayon + lirayluray, meandering rill or freshet)
15. tungepallisurrufionguin --- wear or put on clothing, bangles, necklets, maranderi, body paint, fascinators and other trinkets; get gussied up
16. coroyetayocallein --- guide a flock of her animals; direct a hunt; choreograph a battle; manage a gaggle of children
17. prandamscarhrtyevein --- harvest, sacrifice (< prandum, downwards to rest + scarhrtein, cut off or resect)
18. pirithandain --- weave, draw together, gather; harvest
19. viyellein --- walk in a line; march like ants; fly like curuts (a kind of largeish goose)
20. yayargosein --- run pellmell down a hillside (le-Yayyac-e-Yulyaccele yayargoseng --- Jack and Jill went down the hill, pellmell they did run!) (< argose- adv.ptc. down stream, down hill, in a downward sloping direction cf. uhmose- adv.ptc. up stream, up hill and ondyam- adv.ptc. up & down, teetertotterwise, undulating)

21.a luruota-ng-hwarein --- to braid or twist rope, yule boughs, hair; of friends or lovers, entiwne the fingers; twiddle the thumbs while the fingers are interlaced (wayram! didi-Rehtia : ar-luruota-ng-hwarevehereth damo-yrman hoyo we-ateh-hwares esat le-tuetuesta we-ateh talgare-ng-tamaccang! --- Huy! Look, Rethia! I can't really even begin to braid your hair until I struggle through combing out all the unsolvable knots and tangles!)
21.b lulurota-ng-hwarein --- play "finger-war" (a game where two opponents interlace their fingers and try to pull the other across a line, or throw her to the floor; play thumb wrestling (very much like the game played by Men, except the fingers are always interlaced)
22. embronduin --- (< end- become + beronis rounded) of moons, to wax towards full; of girls, to grow pregnant; of herd animals, to fatten for slaughter; of girls, to die in childbirth
23. huryucayanduin --- of the season, for the awakening peepers and mould frogs to begin the First Singing; to begin a long awaited venture; of a person, to be given the honour of offering the first song at a festival, competition or singing (< huryun, before or in advance of + cayantherio --- enchantment, song; invocation, veneration)
24. c.cactay-t.tactain --- clack the tongue; shake the hlurat (long, thin dice or other kind of game markers); use tlicarisani or "clapping sticks" ("c.c" and "t.t" denote double-articulated [k] and [t] respectively --- say this word thrice as fast as you can for a tongue-twister!)
25. locualayandaccein --- build a bridge across a river; greet a stranger; chat up an interesting boy or girl; make amends for a misdeed (< locuala, river + yando, bridge)
26. yerhrtust-ne-tyelaiein --- (w. dat.) burn one's bridges; rebuff; (w. acc.) banish; ostracise; burn one's bridge for one (< yereths, turned catywumpus, dislocated, displaced + tyel, a Daine wing)
27. elendelasuruein --- watch the stars wheel overhead; rejoice in the changing seasons and years; recollect the past with nostalgia and grief intermingled; recount the years and ages of the world via mythistorical narrative or song (< Tur. elendelara < elenaleya, star + Tur. yassuervian, watch with grief and joy in turns)

28. mineryonellosyanantannein --- teach someone how to count: the numerals as well as the fingers & toes system of counting (< minnos, one + eryon, two + nellon, three + shinanntannein, teach lore, recount a history or myth)

This literally means "teach the 1-2-3s". Compare with mwalal'araqasyanantannein, which means to "teach the A-B-Cs". Aryan languages (like Avantimannish) have sort orders based on the ancient Puntish orders, in particular an early eastern variant sort order, W-E-M. The ancient Queranaran sort order starts with the labials and moves towards the back of the throat: MA-WA-LA-ÊŽA-RA-QA. The eastern Puntish order is heavily influenced by the Queranaran, but is somewhat out of synch: W-E-M-B-L-O-NG: at least it moves roughly front to back!

Daine have a peculiar system of counting that involves the use of all their fingers and toes. The simplest system, and it looks like the one little Rethia is learning, is vevaseryo, or twenties. Daine having five digits on each hand and foot, this is a very convenient system. Start with the little toe on your left side and count inwards: minnos, eryon, nellon, embro and lastly, pancon, the left big toe is five. Then do the same with the right toes: cantos, yacuen, lindo, sendlos, boadhos. That's ten. Make sure you hold your big toes out separate from the others so you can keep track! Then move to the left fingers: tolcyen, rondo, ereson, forestos, querenos and hold your left thumb, fifteen, out separate! Finally, shift over to your right fingers: dromo, endron, calcas, orson, vaseryo and that's twenty! This one is very handy for relatively small quantities of things.

Another system is called ninellovas, or sixties, and is in reality an extention of vevaseryo. Start out as above until you reach "twenty". You should have both your thumbs and big toes pointing out separately from the others. Then, continue on the remaining fingers (starting always with the left little toe) from twenty-one to thirty-six. Each time you get to the fourth digit, pair it, slightly crossed, with the big toe or thumb next to it. Then go back again to the left little toe and start up with thirty-seven through forty-eight. Make sure the third toes & fingers are grouped together. Then start again with forty-nine through fifty-six. Now, you should have only your two little toes and two little fingers sticking out separate from the rest. Finish up counting with fifty-seven through sixty!

Last edited by elemtilas on Sat 03 Jun 2017, 03:05, edited 1 time in total.

If we stuff the whole chicken back into the egg, will all our problems go away? --- Wandalf of Angera

Probably the most spectacular (and truly difficult) magic is that of physical healing. I made mention of one example here in the thread already. The idea of transplanting a body part from an animal or beast to a Daine who has been severely injured. Even the dwimcrafty healing of a broken limb is pretty spectacular.

Contrary to how "magical" healing is depicted in movies or DnD type games, it really is quite the process and no easy one at that. Any healer among Men can make or obtain a "healing potion", dab it on a wound and expect with reasonable surety that the patient a) won't die from the wound and b) the wound will heal over. But the results will be far from entirely functional and nothing at all like cosmetic. This is undoubtedly why warriors and soldiers and long-time adventurers and explorers and donjon spelunkers alike all sport horrible scars.

The reason why Daine rarely sport horrible scars, apart from their hearty constitutions and natural ability to heal, a Daine healer's familiarity with anatomy and physiology coupled with a refined and powerful ability to focus thaumic energies results in a nearly 100% functional and cosmetic result.

For example, a hunter allows himself, most ungracefully!, to be mauled by a bear. His fellows have dealt with the bear, but he's left with some terrible gashes on the flank, some broken ribs, a punctured lung and a broken arm. No big deal. If the wound is cleaned and bound, it'll eventually heal over and close up (by secondary intention). The un-set bones will either form a bridge of new bone and heal in its awkward position, or more likely just kind of be left hanging --- in the arm, that would not be a good thing! His lung will eventually heal, though the recovery will be long and painful and he'll experience considerable difficulty breathing for quite some time. The muscles and subcutaneous and skin tissues will all form initial scar tissues and over the course of time will remodel themselves into a pretty good semblance of their uninjured shape. He'll end up with some nasty scars and slight loss of function, possibly with some discomfort on movement of the affected parts.

A healer will manipulate thaumic energies to move and seal and remodel damaged tissues. What actually happens for example with the broken rib is that she'll first let her own mind's eye wander into the broken body and explore the extent of the wound. She'll be able to see (kind of x-ray-wise) what needs doing. Thaumic energy can be used to manipulate objects. This is very difficult to do, because it's acting like a lever, and as you know a lever needs a fulcrum in order to work properly. The fulcrum in this case will be the healer herself --- she pays a price of some kind deep within for her services. In this case, it's tissues that will be moved and manipulated.

The mechanics are rather simple: she'll use that thaumic energy to mobilise and nudge the fractured edges of bone back into place. Next, she'll use some of that energy to nudge the osteoblasts into action. She may even mimic their action in remodelling the broken bone matrix and cause it to reform a new, unbroken matrix. She'll do the same with torn blood vessels, lung tissue, muscle, tendon and skin. Unless the boy rather fancies long scars on his side, she'll take care that even his skin is remodelled and regenerated. Over the course of the few days while he's in her care, he'll be restored to something like 97% of his pre-injury condition. His body will quickly take care of the other 3% and in no time, it will be like nothing ever happened to him. There will be no obvious evidence of any kind of injury.
Transplanting the body part of an animal or beast is technically similar, though there are other considerations that will yield some different and perhaps spectacularly peculiar results.

The usual reason for transplanting a body part is when a male Daine suffers a destructive injury to the testicles. When that happens, and he's left untreated, he no longer gets the hormones and other chemical infrastructure formed in those organs and his body will eventually undergo the Change --- it will, within about a month's time, transform into the appearance of a female. Visually appealing, but non-functional. This also happens if, for some reason, the testes of a male baby don't form properly in the womb and are unable to effect the development of male characteristics. Such a boy will be born looking like a girl. No hope for that, but there is a slim chance of effecting a cure for a boy who is injured later in life.

Here the magic is quite deep indeed. It will involve ancient magics of the hunt and blood and sacrifice, not to mention the skill and power of an accomplished and mighty healer. The combination is rare, and many boys who suffer such injuries must simply face up to life after the Change. Suicides after the fact are not unknown.

The injured boy must first seek a healer able to do the task. She will enter a trance and inform him what animal to seek for. He must then track down that animal --- be it wolf or bear or wildcat or warg or boar or something else --- must engage him in battle and fight him without weapons. He must subdue the animal and bring him back to where the healer is, then fight him again and kill him. During this time, the healer will have prepared her house for the work ahead. Teas of various kinds (to ease the pain of the operation, to make the boy sleep, to strengthen her own body and will) will have been prepared and aromatic herbs and woods will have been gathered for the fire.

When the beast has given up his own life for the boy, both are brought into the healer's house and laid out on the floor. She'll first skin the beast and wrap his body in it. They drinks their teas, he's zonked out and she goes to work. She'll use her own power to manipulate tissues, just like the other healer did, only this time it will be to remove the destroyed organs and reattach the new, healthy ones. Technically, not difficult. Spiritually, much more so. Because not only is she marrying together two pieces of flesh, but she's marrying together two antagonistic pieces of flesh --- the nature of the beast and the nature of the boy are inherent in the tissues and the one must be made subservient to the other. She will also heal his other hurts in a more normal fashion.

But as you might suspect, as with any use of dwimmery, there is always a price to be paid, and sometimes the price is high. In the process of subduing the beastly nature of the new tissues, it will actually become part of the boy. His body will not only end up with warg nuts, but he might end up with changes in hair or feather color, he might end up patches of warg fur in his chest or arms, his eyes might change colors to that of the warg. His personality might change some, too: he may take on some of the instincts and innate capabilities of the warg. He may be able to understand warg and wolf speech. He may even gain the ability to skinchange into a warg.

There is also the possibility that some aspects of the beast will transfer to the healer as well --- usually memories, sometimes fears or anxieties. She may experience guilt over what she's done --- needlessly, mind! But that's one effect of using dwimmery.
Another spectacular kind of Daine magic is that of dendrothaumology. This is where a practitioner will take tiny seedling trees and arrange them in a desired position and then sing them into their final, mature configuration. He'll do this by entering a kind of trance where he'll join his own spirit with those of the trees and growing iman (plants) around him. He will manipulate thaumic energies to encourage the trees and other desired plants to grow rapidly and into a desired shape. This kind of magic may take a month or three of near continuous singing enchantment. But the result is spectacular indeed!

Here is a couple good ideas of simple examples:

Spoiler:

This is a very common form of magic done by the Daine of Onutumun / Auntimoany. The houses of the Great Families almost always involve veritable forests of woven trees. And the mechanics are similar to healing, except in this case he's manipulating dwimmery to gently move the growing tissues of trees and vines and plants into position. The resulting trees, interestingly enough, may look like they've grown into place over the course of centuries, but in reality, they are no more than a season or two old!

Something like this, where trees are actually part of the architecture and not just bits of landscaping:

Spoiler:

Men pooh-pooh this kind of magic, basically because nothing seems to happen. There's no obvious signs of activity, no bubbling cauldrons, no wands, no spells, no naked women lying about on divans within brocaded alcoves chanting ensorcelments. Just a sleeping patient and a slightly entranced healer gently touching the patient. Not even a glimmer of magical glow. Just a slow and gradual change in appearance of the patient's body as what was broken becomes mended.

Last edited by elemtilas on Mon 30 Apr 2018, 02:00, edited 1 time in total.

If we stuff the whole chicken back into the egg, will all our problems go away? --- Wandalf of Angera

Mgmg. Now we kind of move actually away from ordinary dwimmery. Dwimmery, as we've seen, is a manipulation of ordinary natural forces. For some folks, it is an everyday commonplace. For others, it is truly "magical". What the Teyor are doing is engaging with even more fundamental forces, playing, as it were, upon the very strings of the cosmos itself.

Even more than Daine, Teyor are a people not only unfallen in nature but also people whose entire natures --- the bodily and the spiritual, the seen and the unseen, the earthly and the heavenly, the mortal and the divine --- are in their proper balance. For them, Tes (cosmic & carmic balance) is the normative state of things. Being a very ancient people, their first teachers were the very Powers themselves. (Those are the Firstborn of the Creator: higher than angels and mightier in lore and craft; it was they who came into All That Is and gave things their proper forms. Some of those thing they gave form to, often unknowingly, were people. They were quite surprised to discover the Teyor wandering the wide spaces of earth and they took them under their wings, quite literally, and taught them many things.)

The Teyor were proper students of the various Powers and they learned well. And that includes what even Men would astounding magic --- works surely to be envied, studied and copied.

Because the capabilities that the Powers were working with were the manipulation and formation of reality itself, so too the "magic" of the Teyor is manipulation and formation of reality. Because of their unfallen nature and the transparency between the worlds (for them, there is no veil between the Seen and the Unseen) they are able to manipulate both. To Men and untutored Daine alike, this seems like sorcery. To Teyor and to learned Daine, this is just a manifestation of the wielder's nature.

So what can they do? Surely, the most spectacular works of Teyor dwimcraft are their kingdoms themselves. You don't just drive your waggon along the highway, cross the border and find yourself in a Teyor kingdom. If a Teyor kingdom wishes for you to enter, your waggon will cross the border. If you are not meant to enter, then you will drive right on by. Very many Teyor kingdoms are known to be hidden realms. It might be hidden in plain sight or hidden deep within a mountain or even floating up in a cloud, resting upon an impossibly tall tree. It might be domed under the sea or upon a floating island. Wherever it is, it is not in the world of the Seen. It has edges that are cotangential with the Seen world, and perhaps angles and apertures that transect the veils between the worlds, but its vastness is entirely hidden from lesser eyes. A hidden realm is, essentially, an extension or invagination of the visible world. Or perhaps more of a co-spatial construct. Within, the Sun rises and sets, and it's certainly Sawel, just like outside. But inside, it's not quite the same. Time might be different. Seasons might be different. Space itself might be different. A visitor may experience spatio-temporal displacement upon entering and leaving (kind of like what visitors to a fairy mound might experience). Some Daine have learned this, though they do not seem to be able to work this "magic" as well; but some fine example exist in Auntimoany of Daine great houses that are quite vast inside, and often exist within slightly different times or worlds than what appears outside the house.

Another Teyor work is that of ensorcelment. This they do through song. When one of their bards sings, the hearers are literally transported, not only in mind and heart, but in actual experience to those far off days being sung of. The experiencer doesn't just "hear a song about a place"; rather what's happening is the singer is placing true memory of the experience of that place within the minds and hearts of his audience. The deepest, most moving such memories are those the bard has with his own eyes witnessed and with his own body taken part in. Later hearers will literally share in those memories, no matter long ago they come from. It's a much more difficult thing for a bard to sing of another's memories, though a powerful enough one can do a more than adequate job of it. A truly exceptional bard can ensorcel his audience into accepting as true memory an event that never occurred!

Daine in the East have also learned this work and do it very well indeed. It is not uncommon to a small band of the Elder Kindred (Teyor) travel into Westmarche or Dar Irenalliê for a time just to witness and experience a Daine story singer weave her ensorcelments over her audience.

One kind of Teyor work that Daine have not mastered is that of healing. Now, as we saw, when a Daine healer works on a broken body, she actually uses thaumic energy to move the body forward into mending itself. An entirely natural but very rapid sequence healing. When a Teyor heals, there is no need for tea or ointments or any kind of specific knowledge of anatomy. For, as with all things the Teyor do, it is simply the flowing of Grace and the manipulation of what is real. A healing by a Teyor, quite simply, can best be described as making what happened so it never happened. The broken wing, the broken arm, the crushed ribs and punctured lung of the hunter in the earlier example --- those wounds simply would be made to have never happened at all. Think of their healing as a kind of translation through time & space & existence. Think of it as the hunter's self before the injury gives to himself after the injury that part of himself that is unwounded. There is a melding of body and body and it is one body that was in two places but is now in one.

Another work could best be called sorcery. Plain and simple. Recall that Teyor magic is more like "playing upon the very strings of the cosmos", a much more fundamental kind of dwimmery. This is perhaps the truest kind of magic magic that exists in The World. An adept Teyor can, in fact, manipulate matter itself. Not by shoving wee atomic bits around by the agency of thaumic energy. But rather by causing subtle changes within the nature of the cosmos and of matter themselves. Such a one can carve a statue of a fairy queen, not by taking chisel and mallet to stone, but rather by taking stone dust and rearranging all the tiny bits and fusing them just so. Such a one can easily divert a storm or cause a river to stop in its banks or build a castle in a single night.

This is a kind of work that no Daine has learned anything like perfectly. (Not ready for that yet!, though a few have come close.) And only one Man in all of history was born with this capacity, and the other men and women around him accused him of parlour tricks and wondermongery. When in fact it was simply the case that he was demonstrating the natural birthright of all folk. All folk who are already or who are restored to their unfallen natures, who balance their entire natures.

Other things that Teyor can do quite by nature only seem magical to Men because they are ignorant. Because Teyor can walk in the worlds of both the Seen and Unseen, it seems that they have a canny and magical ability to appear an disappear when and where they please. That they can talk or communicate over long distances with people not present.

If we stuff the whole chicken back into the egg, will all our problems go away? --- Wandalf of Angera

Ahhh, Teyor magic is lovely. Are all Teyor equally gifted, or as with Daine and Men are there some who are more in balance than others and thus are more capable of performing "magic"?

(also, of course I have to like how their realms are hidden from outside view--the dalar enclaves work somewhat similarly, although they don't have anywhere near the same powers as the Teyor. It's like a little pocket universe attached to the "real" world--generally not visible from the outside, but able to be entered if you know how)

alynnidalar wrote:Ahhh, Teyor magic is lovely. Are all Teyor equally gifted, or as with Daine and Men are there some who are more in balance than others and thus are more capable of performing "magic"?

I think that while there is variability in talent, even the youngest, rawest of talents quickly outshine those among Men. If for no other reason that just when Men start to get good at something, they fall prey to disability and death. Teyor live rather longer than even the Daine and so have much more time available to practice their arts.

(also, of course I have to like how their realms are hidden from outside view--the dalar enclaves work somewhat similarly, although they don't have anywhere near the same powers as the Teyor. It's like a little pocket universe attached to the "real" world--generally not visible from the outside, but able to be entered if you know how)

Yeah, like little pocket cosmoses!

Mind you, there are numerous such pocket cosmoses in Gea. These places, brought into being by the Powers, would serve the first Teyor as inspiration for their own creations.

If we stuff the whole chicken back into the egg, will all our problems go away? --- Wandalf of Angera

This was the first book about and from The World I ever made. Originally in four volumes, it was intended to be a kind of encyclopedia of interesting tidbits of knowledge. Woefully shallow and incomplete as it now seems, it certainly still amazed me that even as a young teenager I was able to actually focus on something long enough to finish a large project.

It's now been rebound in one large volume and all the sections arranged more sensibly than the scattered nature of the earlier iterations.

Here are some pictures of the finished project:

Last edited by elemtilas on Mon 30 Apr 2018, 02:22, edited 2 times in total.

If we stuff the whole chicken back into the egg, will all our problems go away? --- Wandalf of Angera

elemtilas wrote:The Compendium of SignsThis was the first book about and from The World I ever made. Originally in four volumes, it was intended to be a kind of encyclopedia of interesting tidbits of knowledge. Woefully shallow and incomplete as it now seems, it certainly still amazed me that even as a young teenager I was able to actually focus on something long enough to finish a large project.
It's now been rebound in one large volume and all the sections arranged more sensibly than the scattered nature of the earlier iterations.
Here are some pictures of the finished project: